Operation Laptop
by Modokashii Suiri
Summary: Koushirou gets a little careless on where he leaves his beloved laptop. And when Taichi and Yamato are in the same room with it and he isn't...well, that isn't the thing to do. Virus checks and utter chaos ensue in more ways than one.
1. Infiltration

Disclaimer-I don't own Digimon.

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Operation Laptop

Summary: Koushirou gets a little careless on where he leaves his beloved laptop. And when Taichi and Yamato are in the same room with it and he isn't...well, that isn't the thing to do. Virus checks and utter chaos follow.

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Infiltration

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Izumi Koushirou peered at the letters on the screen before him. "Taichi...there are a _ton_ of grammatical errors in your paper. How do you expect to pass with _this_?" he asked. It was flabbergasting work. And with Yamato in the house, things only got worse.

"Ah, what do you expect from him, Koushirou? I bet he doesn't know how to spell the word," the rock star commented, strumming a few strings on the guitar.

Twitching, Taichi was about to respond when Koushirou snapped, "Would you put that thing away, Yamato?"

Taichi shut his mouth, glaring at the boy genius before he directed his glare towards Yamato once more, prepared to make his comeback.

"Taichi! Pay attention!"

"Oh boys, would you like anything to drink?" The friendly face of Mrs. Yagami entered the room. "I've got my special ready to go."

Koushirou turned to her with a smile and nodded. "Sure, Mrs. Yagami. Can't wait to taste some."

"Koushirou's brave," Yamato muttered under his breath. The memory of last time sank into his head. He froze when he felt Taichi's mother's gaze fall on him. Clearing his throat, he nodded quickly. "Sure...sounds great..." Although he tried to sound enthusiastic, it failed.

Mrs. Yagami didn't address it if she noticed it. Instead, her unfailing beaming look fell upon her son. Taichi, who had once more tried to start his comeback, clamped his mouth shut, glared at Yamato and muttered, "Sure, Mom. Couldn't you have picked a better time to enter, though? Now it's going to seem out of place."

After sending her son a confused look, Mrs. Yagami exited the room. Yamato snickered, "What? Were you going to spell out 'grammar' for us?"

"THAT'S IT--"

Once more, Koushirou intervened. "Taichi!" he snapped. "Come look at your essay! It's _ridiculous_!"

"Aww...then just make it perfect!" the other boy whined, dropping his fist to his side as he slumped over and took a seat beside Koushirou.

He snorted, "If I make it perfect, _you_ won't learn anything! You really ought to get a tutor or something, Taichi. Your work quality has been going down over the years." Koushirou quickly scanned the paper again.

Yamato started another comment. "The only tutor he could--"

Before Taichi could jump to his feet or Yamato could finish, Koushirou stood up and muttered, "If I'm going to improve your paper, I can't do it with a low grade computer like yours. Taichi, send it by e-mail to my computer. I need to get something from home. _And would you and Yamato_ stop_ fighting_? Oh, and save some of the potato juice for me."

The two other boys had no time to object before Koushirou brought his laptop out of his backpack, turned it on and opened his e-mail account. "Please, don't touch anything you don't know. Log out of my account when it's sent and you've put it on a word document, got it? Save it on desktop," he interrupted before Yamato could say anything. "I'll be back in a few minutes!"

Koushirou ran out the door while Taichi was in the middle of sending his paper to the genius, occasionally muttering under his breath. "Why, I oughta-" he said aloud, bringing his fist down on the mouse. It slipped from underneath his fist, shooting forward. Taichi cursed and allowed his hand to bring it back and click on the 'send' button.

Yamato began a quiet tune, concentrating on his guitar rather than his friend. There were a few scratches as he wrote the notes down on paper and tried again. Groaning, Taichi fell back on his back and lifted his head to stare at Yamato. "Pipe down, will you?"

"So you aren't going to do anything?"

Astounded by the other boy's response, Taichi sat up and moved to the laptop. "Do what?" he asked defensively, opening the e-mail when he found it had arrived.

He nearly deleted a file when Yamato's answer came. "You know," the musician said casually, gently placing his guitar down and walking over to plop down on the right of Taichi, "sort through Izumi's files. The guy's a nutcase. I've always wondered what he put on the laptop." There was a thoughtful tone in his voice.

Taichi made a face and quickly pasted and saved his paper on a word document, as Koushirou had instructed. He was about to log out of the e-mail account when a grin appeared on his face. Turning to Yamato, Taichi commented, "You know, if there was a camera in this room, I'm sure Koushirou would send you a virus. But hey, there isn't. His house is ten minutes away. It's not like he'll notice fifteen minutes of snooping through his things if we're careful."

"If _you're_ careful," Yamato corrected. He took the mouse from Taichi's hand and looked through the inbox. "Let's see, let's see. What's this one?" Curiously, Yamato opened the e-mail and he and Taichi practically stuck their faces against the computer to read the tiny font.

Finally, Taichi pulled back and yanked the mouse away from the other boy. "Give me that," he said. There was a mad grin on his face as he copied the contents of the e-mail and opened another word document to paste it on. Once that was finished, he enlarged the text and quickly scanned through it, biting the insides of his cheeks to prevent himself from laughing.

Yamato, on the other hand, was a different case. He burst out into gales of laughter, clutching his stomach and falling back. "Wow, poor guy. He has to tutor some idiot just so his laptop won't get reduced to a pile of rubble."

Also bursting out into laughter, Taichi finished the rest of the letter and his laughter ceased with an uneasy chuckle. "Y-Yamato," he stuttered, "He's making major moolah offa this guy! Who knows, maybe Koushirou will be richer than you?"

Yamato pushed Taichi aside and read the rest of the letter. An aura of jealousy surrounded him. He repeated the letters content as if it was nothing then said, "Fifty dollars per a lesson? That's extreme. That idiot really _is_ an idiot."

The boy snorted. "Methinks one is jealous."

"Of fifty dollars? NO," Yamato returned rudely, glaring daggers at the boy beside him.

Just grinning, Taichi reached for the mouse to pick another letter. "Hey, maybe we ought to check his files after this," he said. Chuckling, Taichi opened another letter.

At this point, the phone rang and both jumped. Shaken out of his nerves, Taichi reached for the phone and answered it with a trembling, "Hello...?"

"Taichi? Why do you sound like you're sitting on a vibrating chair? Anyway, it's going to take me a while longer. I just can't find that disc. Don't forget to save me the potato juice!" Koushirou shouted from the other end of the line.

Having heard their conversation, Yamato took a swipe for the phone. Taichi stuck his tongue out and pressed it against his ear, yelling, "It's not like we _want_ it. You can have a life time supply if my mom's willing to make that much!" On an after note, he muttered, "God I hope she doesn't."

While Taichi was spooked by his own idea, Yamato grabbed the phone. "Say, Koushirou, got any games on your laptop?" he asked in an innocent voice.

There was a long pause on the other end. "No...why?"

Yamato sighed and replied dismissively, "No reason. Just curious. We're a bit bored, that's all." He rose an eyebrow as Taichi's eyes widened.

"Oh. Well have you logged off my e-mail account?"

Taichi made a lunge for the phone, but Yamato leaned to his right and stuck his left foot up. "No _duh_? See you in...minutes," he said quickly, turning the phone off and letting out a yell as Taichi let out a battle cry and practically jumped on top of him. "Damn it," the guitarist swore. "Taichi! Get off of me!"

After a few minutes of wrestling around, the door to Taichi's room opened once more, revealing an annoyed Hikari and a blinking Takeru. "Hey, Yamato, don't you have anything better to do than pick fights with Tai? I thought you said you were here to finish the song," the boy asked his older brother.

"Tai, if you don't stop acting like a monkey," Hikari snapped in a threatening voice, "I'm telling Mom to funnel all the potato juice down your throat! Takeru and M-"

"Hey, Hikari, what's going on?" Another girl walked over and pushed up her glasses. "Wow, what a sight. I _told_ you we'd get further at my house, but hey, this is entertainment." Miyako broke into a smile and pointed to the laptop. "Hey, that's Koushirou's, right?"

Glaring, Taichi put his hands out, edging in front of the laptop. "Away!" he said, kicking Yamato away.

Groaning, the guitarist rolled to his feet and pushed Tai aside. He let out a sigh and said, "Tai and I have work to do, thanks Takeru. Hey, Taichi, maybe you should get your sister to tutor you." No sooner had the grin come to the face than Taichi made another lunge at him.

Takeru rolled his eyes and picked the guitar up as the two boys rolled by, at each other's necks. "Man, I feel sorry for this thing," he muttered, placing it on the bed.

Miyako ran across the room and to the computer. "Wow, this is so great!" she squealed. "I'm _really_ touching Izumi Koushirou's laptop!" There was a determined flame in her eyes. "Now, I'll discover _why_ no one else can touch his laptop!" she declared. There were a few clicks of the mouse, a scrolling sound, and a sigh from Hikari, who realized that her entire purpose of coming in to shut her brother up was wasted when Takeru began playing a few notes on his brother's guitar.

_If you can't beat them, join them_, she thought dismally, walking over and taking a seat beside Miyako. Immediately, she froze and stiffly turned to her brother. "Taichi Yagami get over here right now!" Hikari ordered, blinking a few times when she turned back to the computer screen.

The older boys jumped to their feet and ran over almost immediately. Taichi ran straight there, practically pushing both girls aside to read the e-mail. Yamato strode over to snatch his guitar from his sheepish younger brother before the two joined the others.

"'_Dear Koushirou, glad to know you got the package. I'll be sending another order soon. Make sure no one else gets his or her hands on it. It's extremely rare. I've found another located on an island named--eh...I forgot the island's name. Bah, old age is a trifle annoying. If you want it, e-mail back._' Signed, 'G.' Wow, what's he dealing with?" Miyako said aloud.

Yamato shrugged. "Drugs?" he guessed.

A glare was pointed his way. The older Yagami scolded, "Now just because he makes fifty dollars a lesson just tutoring a guy in computers, doesn't give you the right to be jealous. Or make stupid assumptions." He snickered, glad that no one was there to interrupt his snide comments.

Hikari was miffed. Clearing her throat, she closed the e-mail and opened another. "Wow...he keeps in touch with Mimi? She hasn't e-mailed me in forever!" she commented in amazement.

There was a laugh from behind her. Pushing Hikari and his own brother out of the way, Takeru took a seat in between Hikari and Miyako and took the mouse in his hand. He shut the e-mail Hikari had opened and instead opened another. The three classmates fell silent before exchanged glances. Takeru turned to his brother and asked, "Yamato, I didn't know you asked Koushirou to get those."

The musician's eyes widened. "Uh...'those,' right. What are 'those' if I may ask?" he stuttered. Although he tried to keep calm, the fear radiated like a rancid smell.

Taking off his hat and fanning himself with it, Takeru replied, "You know. The metronome and stuff. I always thought you went to that music store for those." When his brother let out what sounded like a relieved sigh, Takeru chuckled, "Confession time."

"Not now, Takeru! There are more important things at hand!" Taichi grabbed a hold of the mouse and opened another e-mail. He stared at it for a while before bursting in laughter. "God, what idiot sent _this_ paper?" he asked, voice cracking.

His sister gave him an odd look. "Tai, isn't that your paper?" she asked.

The older Yagami fell silent as he read through the paper further. Slouching, he muttered, "Did I really write that? Man I suck." He let out a depressed sigh and fell back onto the floor again.

"Geez, Taichi, were you half asleep when you wrote this?" Miyako asked as she readjusted her glasses to read the paper as she scrolled through.

"Truthfully?" he croaked. Takeru shot him a questioning look. "Yeah, yeah...it was one o'clock. But come on! They had an awesome movie marathon!" Taichi sat up with a laugh. "You should have seen it!" he cackled.

Hikari shook her head. "Sadly, I _had_ to."

"Aw...Hikari," Taichi whined. "Why do you always have to give me that attitude?"

The girl just sighed. Pointing to Koushirou's laptop, she told him, "Judging from the quality of your paper, Tai, I think it's time you toughened up. College is right around the bend for you-"

Tai groaned and covered his ears, turning to Miyako. "Hurry! Next e-mail!" he yelled.

Grabbing the mouse, Yamato muttered, "We don't have time. It's been past ten minutes! We have to look through his files. We'll come back to his e-mail's later." Quickly, he minimized the windows and smirked as he clicked on Koushirou's computer. What he saw nearly made him choke. "He _lied_ to me?"

Taichi pushed the girls aside to get a better look at the screen. His eyes squinted and he asked, "What? Where? Who lied? Why?" Trailing off, Taichi's eyes widened as he realized what it was. "No...no way!" Grinning, he looked at Yamato and yelled in unison with the boy, "EVERY SINGLE GAME YOU CAN DREAM OF!"

Yamato was about to click on an icon when his brother swatted his hand aside. Giving the older boy a stern look, Takeru took the mouse into his own hands. "Come on, you guys. That's enough. Leave Koushirou's computer alone, would you?" he told them in a firm voice.

"Kids, the potato juice is ready," Mrs. Yagami said. She opened the door and walked in carrying a tray and a smile. "Oh...where's Koushirou?" Looking slightly disappointed, she placed the tray down on the table next to Tai's bed. "Oh well. What are you kids doing? Hikari, I thought you had your own little project to work on."

Hikari beamed up at her mother and replied, "Oh, we're just helping Taichi with his paper." As she said this, she minimized the windows and brought up a word document.

Smiling back, Mrs. Yagami nodded and exited the room. Taichi let out a sigh of relief. "Good thinking, Hikari," he told his sister, edging away from the tray of the potato juice and staring at the computer.

Hikari just frowned disapprovingly. "No, Tai, I'm _serious_."

Taichi groaned, "_Hikari_..."

At this point, Yamato let out a snicker. "I _told_ you she'd be a great tutor for you, Taichi."

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While Takeru and Miyako began to bug Yamato to play his guitar for them, Hikari worked for a full eight minutes with her brother to go through his mistakes and correct them. "When Koushirou comes back, I want him to be amazed that you did this all yourself!" she told him as Taichi scrolled through the document to read his paper word for word and make the necessary corrections.

"Hikari," Tai grumbled, "you're as bad as Piximon!"

To this comment, Yamato's fingers accidentally hit the wrong strings. He looked at Taichi with a start. "Is that possible?"

Takeru chuckled, but remained silent as Miyako sent a look from Yamato to Taichi. "What?" she asked, confused. "I don't get it! Tell me!" she said. Miyako looked furious as she yanked off her glasses and stood up. "I want to know!"

"When we went to the Digital World for the first time," Takeru told her, "Piximon trained us." He paused and chuckled at the memory. "Physical labor. That was our training. Taichi and Agumon had a little adventure of their own."

Taichi wrinkled his nose. "I can hear him now..."

"'_Yup, yup!_'" Yamato mimicked in a high voice.

Everyone burst out laughing when the phone rang. Taichi yelled, "I'll get it!" and picked up the phone. "Hello?" he said.

"Taichi? Good news and bad news. The good news is I remember where I put what I was looking for. The bad news is it's going to take me a while to get it back. It should take half an hour at the most. Shut down the laptop, okay?" Koushirou told him.

Letting out a nervous laugh, Taichi sent Yamato a look. "Oh, right...shut down the laptop. Got ya. See you in half an hour..."

Less than enthusiastically, Taichi slammed the phone back down on the receiver and turned to the computer. Yamato stood up and placed his guitar down. "Time...to..."

"DEAL AS MUCH DAMAGE AS POSSIBLE! WHERE'S THE BLACKMAIL INFORMATION? WHERE?" Taichi yelled furiously, reaching for the computer. Several shouts of protest rose. Before Tai could even do so much as to _touch_ the computer, Takeru slid in front, hand on the mouse. Startled out of his rage, Taichi blinked.

Takeru just smiled brightly and hummed as he opened a few of Koushirou's files, closing them when finding nothing suitable. After a while, he closed the folders and returned to the e-mails, sorting through them and finding nothing of interest. Finally, he shook his head and turned to the others. "Nope. Nothing you can hit a guy with," he said.

Yamato narrowed his eyes on his brother but said nothing. The question in his mind was obvious; when was Takeru such an expert on such facts?

"So we've got two pages to kill until the end?" Miyako asked, yawning and nearly bumping into the untouched tray of perfectly innocent looking potato juice. She shot them a look and shook her head. "You know, I'm thirsty," she commented, picking up a glass.

There was a grin on Taichi's face. Slyly, he suggested, "Why don't we go around and say our opinion on the potato juice and when we first drank it?" Miyako had raised the glass to her lips, but lowered it and raised an eyebrow. "I'll start. I DON'T KNOW WHEN BUT IT'S EVIL!"

A sigh erupted from the younger Yagami. "Sadly, I have to agree with him. I drank it when I was five. One sip and I ran to the bathroom to wash my mouth out," she admitted.

"What was it? After the first Diaboromon incident...yeah, then. I came over to Tai's house to ask for something--homework I think, but his mom gave me a glass...it's worse than Takeru's cooking," Yamato added the last comment with a shiver.

Takeru glared at his brother. "Hey! Well, I actually haven't tasted it yet," he said, taking a glass.

"You don't want to!" Taichi warned him.

Takeru just smiled and brought the glass to his lips, drinking it till there wasn't a drop left. Miyako followed, only taking a hesitant sip. Placing the cup down, Takeru covered his mouth with one hand while the other rested on his stomach. "Bathroom," he croaked, jumping to his feet and running out the room.

Hikari, Taichi, and Yamato let out sighs. "I _warned_ him," Taichi muttered under his breath. The other two watched as Miyako, with great difficulty, managed to swallow. Tai turned to her. "So...?"

A series of coughs answered his question.

"My mom's really a great cook. It would just help a lot more if she didn't try those crazy recipes!" Hikari insisted.

Taichi pointed to his sister. "No...she's got a point. But for years, Mom's been trying to perfect the stupid recipe. We're her guinea pigs. She wanted to make it like our grandma's, only..." he trailed off and shrugged.

Shrugging as well, Yamato muttered, "You ought to let me into the kitchen. I feel like taking over right now."

"What, you want to poison us?" Taichi accused.

With a pained expression on his face, Takeru walked into the room and sat down in front of the computer. "I...think...I..."

Shaking his head, Taichi placed a hand on the younger boy's back. "It happens to them all," he said in a dramatic voice. "It happens to them all..."

"Drama king," Yamato muttered.

"Crazy rock star dude."

"Dork who can't even write a proper paper."

"PAIN IN-"

There was a beeping sound and both boys fell silent. Takeru looked up and turned to the others. "Hey, it's from Mimi!" he told them, opening the e-mail. Takeru noticed there was a document attached and downloaded it. He then quickly copied and pasted the material it contained in a word document, saved the document, marked the e-mail as unread, then logged out of the account. Taichi and Yamato let out yells, but Takeru just shook his head. "We don't need it anymore," he told them. Quickly, he opened his own e-mail account. A small smile appeared on his face. "No new mails. Yamato, care to try?"

Catching on to what his brother was getting at, Yamato grinned. "So you're not so innocent," he laughed, checking his own e-mail account. Miyako, Taichi and finally Hikari followed, and Takeru made sure they double-checked, too.

Finally, they opened the word document and read what had been in the e-mail.

"Th-thirty pages?" Taichi stuttered, eyes widening. A groan followed as he fell back on the ground for the umpteenth time. "Man that girl can write!"

"Quiet..." Everyone else gathered around close to quickly scan through the e-mail. At several points, Yamato or Miyako would move back and make a face before getting even close to read.

Finally, Takeru summed up aloud, "'_America's great. You ought to visit, Koushirou. You can always stay over at my place. Lots of love, Mimi_.' Well, _this_ is what you can get him with no--hey, there are more pages?" Curiously, he scrolled down and shut his eyes. "Mimi...is the weirdest person I know."

After a few more seconds, Hikari and Miyako burst out into laughter, falling back on the floor and clutching their stomachs. Yamato just reddened slightly before turning away. Suddenly curious (especially because of the last few sentences), Taichi jumped to his feet and crawled over to see what all the commotion was about. "HOLY WHAT THE HECK?" he yelled, eyes widening considerably.

In the remainder of the document, there were pictures of a handbag, sandals, Mimi by the beach, and various other things Taichi would have thought Mimi would send to Sora, perhaps. Instead, each picture had a caption under it stating something about how it was 'so cute!' or 'to die for!' Taichi made a face. "_Girls_," he muttered in disgust.

There were a few thuds that Tai mistook for Miyako and Hikari rolling around. Seconds later the door was thrown open, revealing a panting Koushirou. "I...found...i-hey, what's that?" he stuttered, eyes wide as he ran over to his computer and pushed everyone aside. "Taichi, what did you do to my computer?" exclaimed the genius. "Why is--oh, Mimi wrote?" There was silence for several seconds before an extremely red Koushirou turned around to face everyone. "Y-you..._all of you_?"

Immediately, Takeru, Hikari, Miyako and Yamato pointed to Taichi. "He did it!" they chorused. However, Takeru, Hikari and Miyako's fingers were pointed between Yamato and Taichi.

Koushirou, pale-faced, placed the document in the trash after closing it. He quickly checked his e-mail for any sabotage, then his files. Finding everything to be satisfactory, he turned back to Tai and Yamato. "If I ever do something like this again, I'll remember to _take my laptop with me_," he muttered.

Taichi grinned as he picked the tray off the table and held it out to Koushirou. "Potato juice?"

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A/N-

Pure humor is what it's meant to be. Thus the slight OOC. I might do a part two. Opinion's good news for me. As usual, I feel there's something wrong in the story, so if you spot what it is, that would be nice. There will be another chapter. Probably two more.

Review or Flame.


	2. Seek And Destroy

Disclaimer-I don't own Digimon.

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Seek and Destroy

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Koushirou sat in front of his laptop, brooding.

"Koushirou!" he heard his mother call out. "Could you come over here for a moment?"

He twitched visibly. The one thing he hated more than a bunch of numbskulls looking through his files was being interrupted during a virus scan. Head bowed, Koushirou rose to his feet with great reluctance and made his way to the kitchen.

Just as the door closed, the room erupted in a brilliant flash of light. Seconds later, all was normal.

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The next morning in the computer lab was stressful for Taichi. Out of frustration, he began yelling, "Izumi Koushirou, where the hell are you?"

Iori, Miyako and Hikari exchanged glances. "Something I missed?" Iori guessed.

Nodding, Hikari explained, "Just before we left, our computer broke down. Koushirou offered to print the paper and come here early. And we all know Tai's no early bird." At the comment, the three burst into muffled giggles.

Yamato just shook his head, quitting his game of solitaire on the computer. "Taichi, calm down. Koushirou won't forget it. If he does, you can always print it here in case," he reminded the boy with a motion to the computer in front of him.

There was silence. Finally, Taichi let out a laugh and slipped into a chair. "Oh, yeah!"

Rolling is eyes, Yamato muttered, "Next thing you'll know, he'll be screaming about how he didn't send it to himself."

The words were on cue.

"I DIDN'T SEND IT TO MYSELF!"

The younger Yagami sent a painful look at the frantic Taichi. The boy began to jump out of his seat and yanking on his hair. _Where's Daisuke when you need him? He'd shut Taichi up...I think._ "Taichi, how exactly is it that you're my brother? Check 'sent mail,'" Hikari sighed, massaging her temples.

Nervously, Taichi slumped back in his seat. He laughed nervously and mumbled, "Knew that."

The room fell into silence save for the humming of the computer and the noisy printer. Yamato glanced up at the clock. Iori, Miyako and Hikari followed his example. Under his breath, Iori began to count, "Three...two..." Before he could finish, the door burst open, revealing a panting Daisuke with a soccer ball in one arm, the other arm pushing the door aside.

"One," Miyako finished, rolling her eyes. "It's kind of strange. Takeru's late today. And so is Koushirou. If they're later than Daisuke-"

Daisuke suddenly jumped up and punched his fist in the air. "YES!" he screamed. "FINALLY! I beat Takeru at _something!_" He dropped the soccer ball on the ground and ran over to Hikari. "So, how about-" he started.

Hikari looked at Daisuke, a hard glare fixed on her face. Daisuke didn't seem to notice. "_No_, Daisuke. Besides, we've got our project to work on," she reminded him, her glare seeming to intensify at the mention of the project.

"Yeah, how could you forget?" Miyako added, suppressing a snicker. _Especially considering it was at Hikari's house_.

The young goggle boy opened his mouth several times. Finally, he pointed at Iori and yelled, "But he didn't come either!"

Shrugging, Iori pretended to be interested in the keyboard in front of him. Absentmindedly, he began running his fingers over the keys. He finally spoke with reluctance. "I had an excuse. You didn't," Iori told him pointedly.

"I...I-I had soccer!" insisted Daisuke, jumping back towards the door.

There was a sound of something falling. Hikari stood up to get a better look. Walking over, she helped the fallen blond onto his feet. "Morning to you, Takeru," she laughed. After helping Takeru up, Hikari turned to Daisuke, who had purposely fallen so Hikari would help him as well.

Daisuke's jaw dropped. Watching Hikari walk away, he scrambled to his feet. Throwing a glare in Takeru's direction, he muttered, "I'll get you yet."

"Hey Daisuke, you came earlier than me. Sorry for not helping out yesterday, guys. I must have overslept," Takeru laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, and I didn't bring the papers, either. I swear I left them at the printer," the boy added.

Miyako, Hikari and Yamato exchanged looks of disbelief. "Little bro, are you feeling okay...?" Yamato asked, twitching nervously.

The look on the older boy's face confused Takeru. "Um...well, I think I had a fever after coming back from school that Friday...I spent the entire day typing up my part. Then Mom called me to the kitchen for dinner because I was in my room till then. I remember being in bed the entire time after that...what? E-eh?"

Glaring at the befuddled Takeru, Daisuke pointed and accused, "You didn't come! Shame on you!" He smirked to himself, placing his hands on his hips. _Now she'll like me for sure!_ Daisuke almost cackled aloud at the thought.

"YES! I'M FIIIIINIIIIISHED!" Taichi screamed, running over to everyone with several papers in hand. He waved them in front of Yamato. "HAHA! VICTORY!"

Suppressing a laugh, Yamato pointed to the papers. "Taichi, that's the e-mail Koushirou received from Mimi," he told the boy.

Taichi's face fell. "Oh," he muttered, gazing at the papers with disappointment. "No wonder it took so long."

"What e-mail?" Takeru asked, taking the papers from Taichi and gazing through them.

At the question, Taichi laughed. Slapping Takeru on the back, he replied, "You know, the one you helped us embarrass Koushirou with yesterday!" He continued to laugh, but both hands reached for the nearest computer so he could try again.

Puzzled, Takeru turned to Taichi. _What the...?_ "How could I have helped you if I was never at the computer yesterday? I had a fever," Takeru mumbled. The blond, flustered and confused, allowed a hand to rest on his forehead as he gazed at his shoes.

"Sorry I'm late," came a low, monotone voice from the door. Everyone turned their heads to the speaker. Koushirou walked into the room, face void of expression.

Just as he started to print his paper, Taichi looked up, a relieved and happy expression on his face. Before he said anything, though, he noticed the look on the computer genius's face. He looked at Yamato, utterly confused. "Uh..." Taichi stuttered, "d-do you have my...paper thing?" The boy twitched slightly, unsure of what to think of Koushirou's current attitude. It seemed dangerously calm. _Like the silence before the storm_, Taichi realized with a shiver.

"Paper?" Koushirou asked in a soft voice. For a while, he stared blankly at Taichi, eyes focused on the former goggle boy in a manner that caused great uneasiness for the boy. Finally, Koushirou shook his head. "No. I forgot," he told Taichi.

Taichi's jaw fell. "N-NOOOOO!" he screamed, letting out a cry of agony.

Rolling his eyes, Yamato walked over to the printer and came back seconds later with four papers. He handed them to Taichi. "Idiot," the musician muttered, folding his arms and shaking his head.

"Oh, thanks Yamato. I always knew I could count on you," Taichi babbled, shutting down the computer he had been working on.

Yamato's eyes became fixed on Koushirou as soon as he noticed he was being watched. A chill crept up his spine as he gazed into the empty eyes. _First Takeru claims he had a fever all weekend long_, Yamato thought, _and now Koushirou's being weird_. _Either something's up, or this is a really weird day for me_.

Not seeming to notice the change in the air of the room, Daisuke pointed to himself and asked, "Hey, Koushirou, who do you think is a better leader? Me or PJ over there?" The other hand waved carelessly towards Takeru.

Everyone in the room froze as Koushirou answered, "Fool. You could never be a leader. You lack a brain."

It didn't take long before Yamato and Taichi got the message. After a quick exchange of nods, the boys rushed forward, each grabbing one of Koushirou's arms and yanking him out the door. Daisuke watched them leave, jaw dropped to the floor.

As the bell rang, Takeru looked towards Hikari and the others. "So...uh, who wants to fill me in...?" he inquired, an apologetic smile on his face.

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All throughout class, Takeru found himself at a loss for words. He couldn't concentrate on anything; numbers and words were incomprehensible symbols. The words of others were unheard.

"Takeru," Iori whispered loudly. "Takeru!"

Startled, the blond turned to his friend, looking somewhat distracted. "Huh...?"

Iori pointed towards the board. "Notes," he informed the other boy.

Smiling gratefully, Takeru took out his notebook and began to copy the notes. His spacing out didn't go unnoticed by Iori. _It makes no sense_, Iori thought. _How could he be there but at home? It's like someone made a copy of him_...

It was improbable, but something in Iori's mind just couldn't let the idea go. _And now Koushirou's weird, too_. He found himself spacing out and quickly shook his head. _No. Concentrate on this later, Iori. Think about what Grandpa says...whatever he says_. Back on track, Iori began to quickly scribble down the notes.

The rest of the school day passed by quickly. Takeru finally discovered his long sought-out explanation, and Iori was more informed in the situation.

"So...what happened?" Takeru asked as they all walked over to Hikari's house, accompanied by Yamato and Taichi, who were bickering over the reason behind Koushirou's attitude.

Hikari was the one who spoke first. "Well we were all in my room-" she started.

It wasn't long until there was an interruption. "WHAT?" Daisuke screamed. After a rude glare from Miyako, Daisuke shut up for good until Hikari was done speaking.

"_Anyway_," Hikari continued, "We were in my room. Miyako and I were working on the poster for the most part, and you were reading off the information. If you ask me, you seemed completely normal." She paused to let Takeru absorb the first parts. "Then _Tai_ and _Yamato_ were being noisy and wrestling, so we went to check on them. It turns out that after that, all we really did was play around with Koushirou's computer. You, Miyako and Yamato left shortly after Koushirou found out, and an hour later, Koushirou left," the girl finished.

Under her breath, Miyako added, "And you were brilliant in helping us dig up some dirt on Koushirou."

Yamato snapped his fingers and pushed Taichi aside. "Speaking of dirt, how'd you do that, Takeru?" he suddenly asked his younger brother, completely ignoring the furious Taichi.

The younger boy gazed up at his brother. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. Finally, not trusting himself to speak, Takeru just shrugged. Instead, he murmured to himself, "I was in bed...wasn't I?" and nothing more was said after that.

Part of Iori wished he had been there yesterday to experience what had happened. The facts didn't add up. It didn't seem possible that Takeru could have been sick in bed _and_ helping Hikari and Miyako. To top it all off, Takeru didn't seem like the type to 'dig up some dirt' on anyone.

_Then it's settled!_ Iori's decision was firm. _He must have been possessed by something! Oh, great. Now I sound like Daisuke. Maybe he just doesn't want us to know there's another side to him_. _We'll see_.

"Hey, are you guys leaving me behind?"

Taichi and Yamato froze in the middle of pushing each other off the road. In a stiff manner, they turned back to face the owner of the voice. Koushirou stood there, same blank expression on his face as before. The older boys were dead silent as they stared at Koushirou, and it was Iori who broke the silence. "Hey, Koushirou. Are you coming over, too?" the younger boy politely inquired.

Wordlessly, Koushirou nodded and fell into step beside Iori.

It was five more minutes before they reached the Yagami household. Iori entered last, keeping a wary eye on Takeru and Koushirou. At the moment, Takeru was engaged in a perfectly normal 'fight' with Daisuke, only termed 'fight' by Daisuke. To Iori, it was more of Daisuke's relentless bugging focused on Takeru.

Koushirou, on the other hand, was being carefully watched by Taichi and Yamato. Both boys were muttering behind the third boy's back, sending looks back to observe their strange friend. Normally, a paranoid Koushirou would have yelled at them by now. This Koushirou...

This Koushirou blankly stared back at the Yagami and Ishida boys, not saying a word. His eyes were observing them, watching their every movement.

"I'm telling you, Tai," Yamato insisted, "he's still mad for yesterday."

Shiftily, Taichi sent Koushirou a look over his shoulder. There was no reaction. He shook his head and muttered, "No, this is something different." When Yamato snorted in objection, Taichi held out his fist. "What? You don't believe me?" Taichi asked, voice rising.

Again, Yamato snorted. "Well, there's only one word for that."

"I agree!"

"NO."

Swearing loudly, Taichi took a step towards Yamato screaming, "DAMN YOU!"

Before anything could happen, Iori shut his eyes. Much to his own surprise, he yelled aloud, "COULD EVERYONE PLEASE BE QUIET?" A startled silence awaited him when he opened his eyes. All eyes were on him, including Koushirou's. _I think...Koushirou's the one to worry about here,_ Iori thought, gulping slightly at the blank eyes he saw.

"S-Sorry, but...I think we should work on the project now," he reminded them.

Hikari was the only one who addressed his comfort in an inconspicuous manner. Smiling at Iori, she muttered in an annoyed voice to everyone else, "Iori's right. Gee, at this point, he's the only one we can count on, right Miyako?" With a furious nod, Miyako confirmed her agreement.

Silently mouthing Hikari a thank you, Iori followed the others into Hikari's room where the poster was laid out with Takeru's papers to the side. "That's how much we finished!" Miyako announced with a hint of pride.

"I don't remember doing any of this," Takeru mumbled so no one would hear.

Iori heard, however, and became slightly worried. He mentally made a note to himself and became absorbed in helping the others with the poster rather than in his worries.

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That night, Iori scanned his computer for viruses, as was scheduled for the month. It went by quickly; there were no viruses, much to his relief.

It was around midnight, and everyone in the house was asleep. Noticing this, Iori smiled a little. _Maybe...I can ask Koushirou to take a look at my computer. I've been thinking about upgrading it, anyway_, he decided, shutting down the computer and flipping the light switch off in the room. He quietly snuck to his own room and slipped under the warm, reassuring covers of his bed.

He yawned a little, murmuring to himself, "Perhaps tomorrow will be more informative." Even if it wasn't, he was sure things hadn't changed for Takeru or Koushirou. _Maybe I could invite Takeru over, too_..._  
_  
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"Hello...Mom? Hey, uh...y-yes, I'm fine," Yamato mumbled into the phone, turning slightly pink as his mother went on to mention grades. "Um...y-yeah, yes, Mom. Yes! Please, spare me with the grades talk! NO! I'm not talk-...Mom," he groaned.

Taichi chuckled, leaning back on the wall and shutting his eyes. "So even the great Yamato is deterred by his mother," he muttered in an amused tone.

The second boy shot the Yagami a rude look. Eyes ablaze, Yamato snapped, "Taichi, shut up. No, Mom, I was talking to _Taichi_. Now would you _please_ listen?" He waited a while, and Taichi could hear the faint noise of Ms. Takaishi speaking. "Yesterday...did Takeru come over to Taichi's house?" Yamato waited again for an answer. Slowly, he repeated for clarification and Tai's benefit, "So he was sick, but he asked if he could come and said he was feeling better? And when he came back, he was sick still?"

It was a long process to add up the facts as Yamato continued talking. Koushirou, completely blanking out. Takeru, apparently having come over yesterday and been sick in bed. Takeru knowing just how to 'dig up some dirt' on Koushirou. Takeru on Koushirou's computer.

...Takeru on Koushirou's computer...? _He knew how to work Koushirou's computer. That couldn't have been Takeru. Come to think of it, he did a whole bunch of things I never knew Takeru could do! It...it's like-no, it couldn't have been a digimon_, Taichi thought, tapping his chin thoughtfully. He dismissed the fact and just decided the two were lacking sleep. It had happened to him before, and he had thought he could play guitar (that unfortunate incident was another story that involved one of the strings on Yamato's guitar snapping).

Yamato finally hung up and turned to Taichi. "You heard," he said.

The former goggle boy's eyes opened. Flippantly, Taichi replied, "I have ears." He waved a lazy hand towards Yamato. "It's like a digimon's possessing them, but hey, what are the chances?" he told the other boy, shrugging. Stretching his hands in the air, Taichi yawned.

"You're welcome for allowing me to let you stay over," Yamato returned, voice heavy with sarcasm.

Raising an eyebrow. "Gee, thanks," he said, grinning. "I was waiting for that."

"_Taichi_."

"It was a joke!"

"Not funny."

Taichi rose to his feet and tilted his neck to the side as he looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, yeah...I have to go home, anyway. What time is it? Ten? Or is it nine and am I an hour ahead for once?" he asked, suppressing a yawn.

There was an amused smile on Yamato's face. "Try twelve."

"Twelve?" Taichi choked. "Uh...yeah, I'll take the offer to stay over." Eyes wide, Taichi wandered to the kitchen to see the clock and check if Yamato was lying.

Unable to look at Tai without laughing, Yamato occupied himself with the strange attitude of his brother and Koushirou. Yet no matter how hard he concentrated, Yamato couldn't seem to stop yawning. Falling back on the couch, he shut his eyes and thought, _I'll save this for tomorrow_.

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A/N-

Short chapter. Yes, like most, I've decided to turn into one of those disappointing new people who seem to start off with a great idea and update rarely. I'm sorry. Give me a month or two, and everything will be well under way (I hope). In terms of updating, I'll be faster. But other stories get first priority, so sorry. Opinions are nice.

Thank you for the reviews. They were very interesting. Thank You:

**JyouraKoumi, Birdboy, Appaku, aubreysvampiregirl, Kayhera**

Review or Flame.


	3. When The Clock Strikes Midnight

Disclaimer-I don't own Digimon.

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When The Clock Strikes Midnight

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"So what's the point of this again?" Taichi asked, staring at the poster that Hikari was carrying.

Hikari rolled her eyes. _He wasn't paying attention in class again_, she thought. "It's a school wide competition. People from all classes can work together in teams of up to six people. We're basically discussing the rise of the toy industry in the past ten years. Well, that's _our_ topic. It just has to do with the economy in some way. Yesterday, the teachers let us work on the project most of the day, but our class wasn't paying attention during math, so..." Hikari stopped explaining and finished with a shrug.

There was a contemplating look on Taichi's face. "Say...what's first prize?" he inquired, trying to hide his widening grin.

"One hundred dollars and a laptop."

Shooting his fist into the air, Taichi yelled, "KACHING! Yamato and I'll get straight to work!"

They were at the front gate when Hikari picked up her pace. "The deadline's today," Hikari informed him. "Good luck."

She left him standing there with his jaw hanging open. "H-hey! Kari, you don't have six people in your team yet, do you?" he screamed, running after her.

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"Great, you got the project!" Iori exclaimed, examining the poster for any flaws.

In the corner of the room, Daisuke leaned against the wall, glaring at the poster. _Stupid poster_. _Ruining all my chances with Hikari_...

A smile graced Hikari's lips. "Of course. If you see Taichi running around, ignore him. He's out of it. Hey, Takeru, are you okay?" she suddenly asked, her gaze averting to Takeru.

The blond looked deep in thought. He looked up, obviously startled, but did a good job of masking it with a carefree laugh. "Of course," he said, a smile on his face that meant nothing to anyone in the room.

Miyako swiveled around in her chair. Slowly, she said aloud, "Okay, then. We've got the entire day to ready our presentation. We're doing this as a poster, but Hikari and I managed to scan in important parts after you all left. We managed to put it into a PowerPoint with Koushirou's help."

Something sprouted deep within Iori. Hate? Anger? Distrust? All he knew was it was a negative feeling. He shifted uncomfortably.

Miyako began again, "Now, as you know Takeru will start off-"

Hotly, Daisuke interrupted, "Why not me?"

"We're saving you for comic relief parts," the girl snapped, adjusting her glasses. She held out several papers and handed one to everyone, keeping one for herself. "These are your parts. But they're only _notes_. _Do NOT read off of them_." She very nearly growled this all out.

Takeru looked positively miserable as he looked over his paper. "Miyako, maybe Daisuke _should_ switch w-"

The answer was a quick and merciless, "NO." Seeing the crest fallen Takeru, Miyako continued gentler than before, "Only _you_ can bring out the true character of that, and I want to see you do it. Come on, Takeru. You haven't been yourself in ages. Even Patamon would agree."

_Patamon_. Iori took note of this and looked at everyone else. _It's about time we scheduled a trip_. _Maybe if everything goes well, we'll go through our new laptop_.

"Alright then." Nervously, he crinkled the paper in his hands. "Then..." Takeru looked up. "Let's do this!"

And there was no doubt that he was nervous.

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Takeru nervously wrinkled the paper in his hands. His palms were sweating, his head was spinning, and the buzzing of Koushirou's computer, operated by Koushirou himself, was _not_ helping.

Someone _must_ have said something, but Takeru was unable to hear. He found himself squinting into the light of the projector, and when he realized this, he moved out of the way. His heart was hammering in his chest. Surely Miyako had been joking. He could never pull this off.

"Hey, Takeru," he heard Iori whisper to him.

Takeru turned his head to show he was paying attention.

An encouraging smile was shown to him. "You'll be fine," was all Iori said.

But Takeru wasn't so sure of himself, though. Again, someone said something. All he heard was the sounds of the computer, and laughter. They were laughing at him, weren't they?

"Tatetu, start," Daisuke hissed.

Startled, Takeru snapped as straight as a stick, staring at his audience: fellow competitors, two middle-aged men and a young woman who held a clipboard in one hand and a pencil in another. Her gaze was focused on the clipboard at that moment and she was furiously scribbling something down.

The hammering continued, and he could feel sweat drops bead his head. "Uh..." Takeru swallowed and shut his eyes.

He could only remember darkness, harsh breathing, and heat. Someone was laughing at him, just like now. That moment was so like now. _What...? What was it?_ Desperately, Takeru searched inside him for an answer, and it suddenly came to him. His eyes shot open. Stiffly, he turned to Iori, who would be talking after him, and nodded. Takeru then looked at his audience and inclined his head.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're very glad you could be here for this presentation on this day at this hour and minute!" he announced loudly, making a sweeping gesture with his right arm. His crumpled notes were in the other. "Many children every day do the same thing, although it may not be at the same time. They brush their teeth, take a bath, go to school, but most importantly, they play with toys. They _buy_ these toys, and their money a-" Takeru stopped.

The noises had _changed_.

Several gasps erupted from the girls in the room. Koushirou's computer was hissing angrily, blue sparks erupting from it. The projector connected to it erupted in flames, eliciting screams. Takeru felt dizzy as he noticed the lady frowning and making several ticks on her clipboard. His breathing became shallow and he found himself stumbling around. _I can't...not yet...not now_, he thought, desperately clinging onto a nearby desk when he fell forward. _Please_...

"Takeru!" he heard someone cry, "Takeru where are you?"

_I have to tell someone_..._! _

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Iori swallowed as he watched the comatose body of Takeru outside the smoking room. Early during the commotion, Koushirou had quickly disconnected his computer and run out. Yamato and Taichi had run in seconds later and aided in helping everyone out.

The poster was gone, the contest was postponed (everyone's projects had burned), and the room was still a burning inferno no one seemed to care about.

For the past few minutes, he had been instructed to watch Takeru, and nothing had happened, and he wasn't sure what to do when something _did_ happen. What if Takeru erupted into a coughing fit? He couldn't leave the boy. Not in this state.

But something did eventually happen, and Iori was glad it wasn't as he imagined.

Weakly, Takeru moved his hand to grab Iori's sleeve. He used it as leverage to hoist himself up against the wall opposite the burning room. "Digi-" he started, but burst out coughing.

"Did you?" Iori guessed, more alarmed than he let out. He scooted closer to the other boy, eyes narrowed into a worried gaze.

Takeru shook his head. "Digimon. I remember a digimon. It had no shape..." He sucked in a breath through gritted teeth and let it out with a weak cry of pain. "I don't think it did...I couldn't tell what it looked like. I never had a fever, I was sapped of all my strength. He went _into_ me, Iori..." the boy groaned. Tossing and turning as if he was sleeping and had a nightmare, Takeru continued breathlessly, "He possessed me and _that_ was why I couldn't remember anything.

All the while, Iori had been staring wide-eyed at Takeru, holding back his breath as if letting it out would cause an explosion. He opened his mouth to say something finally, but instead turned his head at the call of his name. "Takeru's awake!" he yelled in response, waving his hand at Taichi and Yamato.

"Get out of there, _now_. That's the Chemistry room for goodness sakes!" he heard Yamato yell.

Iori helped Takeru to his feet and aided him to his brother. But as he did this, he couldn't help but get the feeling that he was missing something.

Someone cried out angrily, "A little help would be appreciated!"

Iori nearly groaned as he realized who that was. Of course Daisuke would be the only one knuckleheaded enough to go in there, even if it _was_ with a fire extinguisher. As they approached Yamato, Iori said, "Daisuke's still in there! I'll go warn him!" and no sooner had he said this when Taichi bolted for the room.

Apparently Daisuke wasn't the only knucklehead.

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School had been cancelled for the day, and while many rejoiced in this strange turn of events at home, Daisuke and Taichi were in the hospital, getting treated for minor burns.

The rest of the gang, even Jou, had made it to see them after they were treated.

"Honestly," Hikari scolded, "running into a building? And _you_, Daisuke! What possessed you to stay? And Koushirou! Where were y-"

"I had to make sure the computer didn't explode," Koushirou replied in a boring, monotone voice.

Miyako had been doing her very best to contain her anger. However, her hands clenched and everyone immediately plugged their ears as she yelled, "_Computer?_ WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR GOD DAMN _COMPUTER?_ OUR PROJECT IS RUINED, OUR RESEARCH IS GONE, TAKERU NEARLY DIED, DAISUKE NEARLY DIED, AND TAICHI BEING AN IDIOT NEARLY DIED AS WELL. AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS YOUR COMPUTER?"

He acted as if this was an every day matter. "Naturally," the boy responded, "without the computer you'll have no access to what digimon is what. You'll have lost your one good connection to the Digital World. Don't you care about Hawkmon?"

And he spoke the truth, although no one would admit it.

Takeru excused himself to get some air and Iori immediately followed suit. The two made their way to clearing, away from buildings or any other cramped spaces where anyone could hear. There on the grass, Takeru seated himself, and looked up at Iori with determined eyes. "I look at Koushirou, and I see..." He faltered.

Instead of making a guess, Iori murmured, "A digimon possessed you."

"I'm sure of it, Iori! I don't know how he does it, but I apparently touched Koushirou's computer. I remember I did a virus scan that night, but the virus scan wouldn't work, and then I started feeling feverish, and-" Takeru stopped. He had been talking so fast he had lost track of where he was.

Iori's frown deepened. "We need to go to the Digital World," he muttered.

It was just about time.

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Iori figured the very last thing he should be doing was going alone, let alone this late at night and at the safety of his own home. Nevertheless, this matter required his immediate attention, and immediate wasn't tomorrow.

Thousands of feelings passed through Iori, and when he finally brushed them aside, he realized he was already in the Digital World. A sigh escaped him reluctantly, and he made his way through the woods under the cover of darkness, hoping to find Armadillomon.

Softly, he whispered the digimon's name into the darkness, hoping that, as he trekked along the dirt path, Armadillomon would come running.

It never happened.

Some minutes later, Iori collapsed against a nearby tree, listening to himself breathe. Nothing seemed right. He was lost in this dark, twisted dimension, and he didn't know where it was. It wasn't possible that in the short time they had been gone, something had happened.

He was very near to giving up as he stood up. The second he did, he tripped over a root and was sent plummeting forward into a hole that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Iori was starting to get sick of the dark.

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A grainy voice muttered incomprehensibly. Combined with the other voices that complained in the tunnel, it sounded like a maraca, hardly musical.

Finally, someone shouted for silence. A cat appeared, looking incredibly incensed. "We _know_ you hate this, but be quiet about it, would you? It's hard enough to hide as it is. What if he found _this_ place, huh? What would we do then?" she hissed. Her words were well chosen and immediately shut the other digimon up.

"Gatomon," called the owner of the grainy voice. He tossed his head towards the human lying on a pile of sand.

Gracefully, she leapt over. "Is he awake?"

On a down note, Armadillomon shook his head and muttered, "Still out cold." A sad expression donned his face as he sighed and nudged Iori's hand with his nose.

Gatomon sighed and looked at the boy. Everyone had been in a great fright when he fell through, thinking him an agent. V-mon, Patamon, Hawkmon and Wormmon had done their very best to calm down the other digimon. Still, a great portion remained, curious as to what Iori was doing here.

It seemed as if the sun was shining when Iori started to stir, groaning as he pushed himself off of the ground. One hand stayed where it was, and the other rose to his head, then brushed the dust off of him. "Where-" he started, but found it useless to continue. Over a dozen wide-eyed digimon gazed silently at him, and he could do nothing but gape in return.

"Iori!" Armadillomon cried, throwing himself at the boy.

Startled, Iori turned to his friend and burst out into a mix of laughter and tears, welcoming him with an embrace. "Why are you all down here...?" he finally asked when their laughter subsided.

An uncomfortable silence followed.

"Murmuxmon," Gatomon breathed, gazing up at the hole where Iori had fallen from. Even now, there were digimon repairing it. Iori's gaze followed hers and Gatomon began to explain, "It happened shortly after you all left. No one's _exactly_ sure how it happened, but whatever computer you all entered in must have gotten a virus. Somehow it morphed, and Murmuxmon is the result of that."

"He's been taking everything over!" Armadillomon added, snorting angrily. "Even Tentomon's tree house!" Iori could only smile at that comment.

Gatomon cut him off from there. "But worst of all is that no one's been able to stop him. None of us! He's planning to make his move tonight, too. And he destroyed almost all nearby portals in and out of the Digital World. All we've got is you. I'm not sure what Armadillomon could do as Digmon or whatnot, but as long as you guys don't get hurt, I think we'll be fine," she told him, sounding absolutely positive.

Someone from the crowd shouted, "You've gone catty! How can we count on them, much less _trust_ them?"

The cat looked murderous, but Iori rose to his feet and brushed himself off. "I think I've got the gist of it," he said slowly. "When does Murmuxmon attack?" Ignoring the angry member of the crowd, he instead turned to Gatomon.

The digimon clicked her tongue. "Tonight."

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"Are you _sure_ this is the place?" Armadillomon asked Tentomon suspiciously.

Indignantly, Tentomon replied, "Of course! Patamon and I just went scouting here minutes ago! A couple of Gizamon admitted it out loud, and they didn't even see us! Now tell me, Iori, how is Koushirou?"

Iori's shoulders dropped, and a serious look appeared. He murmured, "Don't say anything, but I think Murmuxmon's possessed him. First Takeru was being strange, and now Koushirou's beyond normal." His voice dropped even lower as he said, "Even Takeru thinks this is what happened. He remembers a shapeless digimon..."

The bug digimon looked dismayed. "Yes, yes..." he muttered somewhat distractedly, "I should have expected as much." A sigh. "They always go for the geniuses. What's worse is none of us know what Murmuxmon looks like either," he finally confessed.

"Well that's great."

"I know! But they say he'll be in his true form, and soon too! If all goes right, you and Armadillomon will take care of him! I wish you luck, Iori! I hope Koushirou feels better, too. Maybe it's just a cold," Tentomon told this last part to himself, trying to convince himself that Koushirou was _not_ possessed.

Iori and Armadillomon watched Tentomon buzz away and then crouched lower behind their log, watching the clearing in front of them instead. Dozens of digimon crowded the place, cackling and making jokes about one another. A few fights sparked, but all eventually quelled minutes after Tentomon's leave.

A silence descended upon them all. Iori could make out a Veggiemon running forward with a computer in his hands. He placed the item reverently in the middle of the clearing, and then raced back to form a circle with the rest of the digimon.

At once, green sparks erupted from the computer screen. A roaring whirlwind of the green sparks formed, sucking in almost everything: dust, trees, leaves, digimon..._everything_. A tall figure appeared in the middle of it all, and while what was taken into the whirlwind screamed loudly and disappeared, the figure seemed to grow.

The screaming of the whirlwind subsided, but Iori and Armadillomon continued to shut their eyes, too afraid to look up. When he was sure nothing like that would happen again, Iori peeked over the top of the rotting log and nearly cried out in a mix of sorrow and glee.

In the middle of the clearing, with those same lightless eyes, stood Izumi Koushirou, laptop tucked under one arm.

"Minions," he said softly, "We have some guests."

It was midnight.

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A/N-

Opinions are nice, sorry I took so long, I can't guarantee it won't happen again. Sorry if the plot is strange to you. Hope you enjoyed, and again, other stories get first priority.

Thank you, everyone who reviewed:

**Birdboy, JyouraKoumi, Kayhera, The Unknown Alias, Circeus**

Review or Flame.


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